Holland Theatre prepares to reopen in Bellefontaine, windmills and all

Jim Weiker The Columbus Dispatch @JimWeiker

Sunday

Sep 8, 2019 at 12:01 AMSep 9, 2019 at 1:47 PM

BELLEFONTAINE — Kris Swisher is pretty sure her beloved Holland Theatre is one of a kind.

But there's not exactly a federal database she can check of movie theaters done up like 17th-century Dutch villages.

Swisher is, however, certain of this: The Holland Theatre, a striking piece of themed architecture, hasn't looked this good since it opened almost nine decades ago in downtown Bellefontaine.

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"It'll look like it did in 1931," said Swisher, president of the theater's board and instrumental in the two-decade quest to preserve the building. "It's incredible, just incredible."

Crews are wrapping up a $1.3 million renovation of the theater and beginning a new $235,000 project that will add a greenroom for performing artists behind the stage.

The theater will lift the curtain on its makeover Oct. 18 with singer Judy Collins, who will open a deep season of shows.

"It’s going to be a wonderful mingling of generations talking to each other," said Chris Westhoff, the theater's managing director.

Restoration and construction crews have spent months inside the theater, which is instantly identifiable by its Flemish-style stepped-gable facade. They have built a bar and concession stand in the lobby, and a technician booth in the theater. Seats have been removed, and new ones are on their way. Carpet has been ripped up in the lobby to reveal the original slate floors.

Wood paneling in the entrance has been painstakingly restored and Bellefontaine artist Cassie Hassel has painted murals in the lobby.

But the highlight of the work is inside the 576-seat theater itself. There, painters from EverGreene Architectural Arts, a New York firm that specializes in historic preservation, have been bringing the faux brick-and-stone facade of a Dutch village back to life.

The Holland Theatre was designed by architect Peter Hulsken, a Dutch native who immigrated to Lima, Ohio, and modeled the theater's interior after his hometown of Arnhem, Holland. Through paint and plaster, Hulsken transformed the theater's walls into a Dutch streetscape, complete with illuminated windows (and window boxes), gates, streetlights, and of course, two functioning windmills.

With a sky-blue ceiling and reflecting clouds and stars, the theater was designed to mimic watching a movie outdoors, in the middle of a Flemish village.

The Holland opened in 1931, near the end of America's craze for lavish movie palaces. Over the years, many such theaters fell into disrepair or were demolished, but several have been preserved in Ohio, including the Ritz Theatre in Tiffin, the Ohio Theatre in Downtown Columbus, the Marion Palace Theatre and the Akron Civic Theatre.

The Holland is an outstanding example of what were called "atmospheric" theaters, designed to create a specific setting, said Joyce Barrett, executive director of Heritage Ohio, the Columbus-based preservation group.

"These movie palaces in the '20s and early '30s, they were meant to transport you," Barrett said.

But after its heyday, the Holland declined. The theater was sold in 1966 and again in 1977, when it was split into five theaters. In 1998, that multiplex closed and was put up for sale, leaving the theater at risk of demolition or further neglect.

That's when Swisher, a teacher at the time, came to the rescue with some unlikely allies: her sixth-grade students, who adopted the theater as their class project. The students wrote and performed a play, "As The Windmill Turns," to draw attention to the theater. Remarkably, their efforts succeeded in raising enough awareness that Bellefontaine businessman Richard Knowlton bought the theater and donated it to the Logan County Landmark Preservation organization.

"It was just magical," Swisher recalled of the effort. "Our goal wasn't necessarily to buy it, but just to save it."

Over the past two decades, the group has renovated the theater in bits and pieces, helped by some major donors including Honda of America and Save America's Treasures.

"The Holland Theatre, one of the things so frustrating about it, is they’ve been at this since the early 2000s," Barrett said. "No one believed in it, but Kris is a hero there. She kept doing it and doing it."

The theater's big break arrived three years ago, when the Wisconsin-based Jeffris Family Foundation awarded the theater a two-to-one matching grant of $430,000. The community raised the $860,000 match and started planning a major renovation. In December, the theater closed, allowing work to begin this year.

"This is amazing what this has been turned into," said Patrick Heilman, the job superintendent for the Bellefontaine firm Thomas & Marker Construction, which is overseeing the renovation. "This place was cold, it was musty, it was a mess when we came in here."

In June, the theater got another boost when it received $235,000 in state historic tax credits that will be used for the greenroom.

With the renovation, including the greenroom, scheduled to be finished in December, Westhoff's job is to fill the theater with events and guests. He has sought advice from CAPA, which operates several historic theaters in Columbus including the Ohio, the Palace and the Southern. But Westhoff's biggest model, he said, is Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville, which has developed a strong and loyal following anchored by Americana music.

In addition to Collins, the theater's upcoming lineup includes the pop singer Gary Puckett, country artist Angela Perley, bluegrass group Hawktail and the Crete musical group Xylouris White. There will also be tributes to Red Skelton and Hank Williams and local theater productions.

Restoring such old theaters is important, but keeping them going is just as big, Barrett said.

"Historic theaters are one of the things I care about so much because they create economic vitality, something to do in these small towns," she said.

This past Wednesday, Scott and Debbie Shellhaas stopped by the theater to pick up season tickets. The couple have been active in the theater — Debbie is on the board — since retiring in Bellefontaine five years ago after living in Colorado.

"It's just top-notch entertainment," said Scott Shellhaas. "The theater brings in such a wide variety of entertainment and expands everyone's horizon. To me, the Holland is the core of the town."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the cost of the theater's "green room" project.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

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